RampUp on the Road London 2018 Recap: Give Something to Get Something in a Responsible Way

We headed across the pond for the first time and made London the only place for leaders in martech to be. We may have come a long way since the first banner ad 24 years ago, but there’s still a long way to go. With GDPR still top of mind for many, attendees heard from industry leaders from companies including Kimberly-Clark, Appnexus, the Ozone Project, the Telegraph, Numberly, Criteo, and Discovery about driving consumer insight in a responsible way.

Here are three key takeaways from RampUp on the Road London:

Insight 1: Outcomes are increasingly important to digital marketers in optimizing the value of campaigns

The digital landscape is evolving rapidly – changes and disruption in technology and data, client-centricity, and innovation have become the norm. Silvia Sparry from Xaxis presented to a packed room about how this explosion has created endless opportunities for brands to be embedded into a consumer’s daily life – yet most of them spend more time dealing with a fractured landscape, a deluge of data, and metrics unrelated to actual business outcomes than building brands. 2019 is the 25th anniversary of the CTR – but we need better ways to measure the outcomes of what we do. Xaxis has carried out extensive research in this area, and Silvia shared how its model, Copilot, is at the core of delivering on the Xaxis outcome media vision.

Insight 2: GDPR is an opportunity to educate

Our session on GDPR was standing-room only, so it’s clearly still a hot topic.

Since May 25th, we’ve all become used to having to click past a screen disclosing the way a site uses our data before we can get to the good stuff. But is this the right way for marketers to deal with GDPR?

We’re addressing users’ concerns by telling them what we’re doing with their data, but are we doing it in a way that engages them in data privacy or educates them about why it’s important? Nicola Roviaro, Head of EMEA Data Protection and Privacy Specialists at Google Marketing Platforms, and Sarah Wanquet, Head of Privacy, EU at LiveRamp, shared that we’re now all coming to grips with what GDPR really means, presenting an opportunity to leverage relationships and build trust with consumers.

It’s undoubtedly a long-term challenge, but it’s a worthwhile one, because consumer concern about data privacy is growing.

Insight 3: Your organization needs to be digitally fit

Colin Bradshaw, Chief Customer and Data Protection officer at TwentyCi, suggested that organizations need to see their digital fitness as more than just a task for the tech team. He pointed out that the shopping experience has moved on since the days of high street window shopping, and today “the world is at the consumer’s fingertips.” It means that if you want to keep up with them, you need to use your data. His advice was to focus on three areas – a bit on technology, a bit on process, and a lot on people. Also vital is to map your customer journey and – most importantly – share it throughout your organization. Because, he concluded, “the balance of power has swung and the consumer knows more than you do.”

Bonus insight: Neil Armstrong’s first drink back on planet Earth was a cocktail from the Savoy

Our venue for the day was the Savoy, and as if this couldn’t get any more iconic, we learned about the hotel’s role in celebrating the first moon landing. In 1969, head barman at the Savoy, Joe Gilmore, created the Moonwalk cocktail, which he sent in a flask with some glasses to Houston. Neil Armstrong wrote to him to say it was the first drink the team had after they came out of quarantine.

That’s it for RampUp live events for the year! To learn more about RampUp in San Francisco, our main annual event happening February 25-26, 2019, click here.